I‘ve been fascinated with typography for a while now—thus, this short story that I wrote for my Creative Writing class years ago—but thanks to Instagram, I’ve been obsessed with following amateur and professional calligraphers lately. One of the Filipino letterers I happened across was Abbey Sy of Le Rêveur. What I especially liked about her was how she’s a fellow travel lover. So when I learned that she along with three other friends were organizing a travel bazaar called Suitcase Souvenirs, I immediately made up my mind to drop by, crazy traffic be damned. The event was held at Habitual Coffee, a new third-wave coffee shop in Metro Manila that highlights the Aeropress brewing method.

I’d been there before for a food review and was lucky enough to have interviewed co-owner and barista Kaye Ong, who happened to be another organizer of Suitcase Souvenirs. I couldn’t indulge in a cuppa during my visit last Saturday because of my acid reflux, but I loved the black Ethiopian Yirgacheffe Chelba cold brew that I tried before. It paired perfectly with their yummy coconutty Bad Batter Blondie.

They feature different single-origin beans, and I’m glad to see that they’ve expanded their food offerings to sandwiches and bagels. They’ve also started serving cocktails throughout the day. Read more about my experience at Habitual Coffee here.  Now back to Suitcase Souvenirs.

The four ladies behind the event, Abbey Sy, Kaye Ong, Mikka Wee (of Pepper.ph!) and Kimi Juan, turned this cozy lifestyle store/coffee shop into a treasure trove of travel-themed items, selling souvenirs they’d picked up from all over the globe. There were postcards, guidebooks, keychains, bags, and even clothes. But I was most excited about the items they’d created themselves. Abbey and Mikka teamed up to produce unique postcards, with the words thought up by Mikka and penned by Abbey. Since I’m a fan of them both—Mikka’s an amazing storyteller, as you can see in her blog, The Tiny Traveler—I picked up the complete set of six postcards.

Their postcards are called #TravelingType. Isn’t that clever? And aren’t those cards lovely? My amateur photography skills (and the bad lighting) don’t do them justice. I remember talking to a good friend of mine about how I wanted to get into the habit of sending—and receiving—postcards, and these have me even more excited to start! I’m keeping one of them though. Can you guess which one? While we’re on the topic of travel stuff, I’ve got to share with you another of my latest purchases—the latest issue of TravelNow magazine, which shines the spotlight on our very own Philippines.

How gorgeous cover is that cover? I love how they featured a view that isn’t your typical beach, and you can bet that I’m adding the Kapurpurawan Rock Formations in Ilocos Norte pictured there to my travel bucket list! I’ve got to admit that the biggest reason why I’m so giddy over this issue is because I’m in it! By that, I mean I have an article here…and it’s my first time to be published in a print magazine! I try to avoid using too many exclamation points while writing, but this occasion warrants a ton of that pesky punctuation mark.

Funnily enough, I wrote a food recommendations article, and that isn’t even close to my comfort zone. I hope I did a decent job though. I’ve yet to scan my article for posting on my future portfolio page, but you can pick up the magazine at newsstands in the Philippines. Yay!!!